It is a picture perfect metaphor for a lost battle, a once seaworthy double-masted vehicle wallowing today in the dark, cloying mud of a paddy field. It is a boat that has history in its fragmenting timber body, but there seems no will to preserve time's story.

The boat at Kadakkarappally village in Kerala's Alappuzha district, according to nautical experts, has seen a millennium of events, a fact corroborated by carbon dating in India and the US that placed its age at 700-1,000 years. It was found in 1999 by excited farmers who thought they had stumbled upon a treasure. There was no gold or jewels for them, only for the archaeologists-who ascertained in 2003 that the artefact was one of the most well-preserved pre-modern boats ever found in India.

PICTURE SPEAK

SUNK: The neglected state of the ancient boat

The water in which the flat-bottomed sailboat had lain submerged for centuries preserved it well. Wooden pieces, rope fragments and an 83 cm tall dressed stone, weighing 125 kg, presumably the boat's anchor, were taken to the Archaeology Department museum at Hill Palace near Kochi. The boat was left behind, studied on site by experts from home and abroad and admired by a horde of visitors. The state Government grandly announced the setting up of a maritime museum at the location to house the find.

Today Kadakkarappally is no longer a tourist spot. A lone security guard stands desultorily replying to queries. "Two years ago we had a tough time controlling the visitors who streamed in round the clock," he says, "but these days hardly anyone comes here." After spending Rs 15 lakh on the boat's preliminary excavation, the Archaeology Department and Centre for Heritage Studies (CHS) made no effort to complete the work and protect the historical remains. "We will take over the site and declare it as a protected heritage site," says K.R. Gowriamma, state agriculture minister. But there is little cachet in such promises since the state has failed to implement plans declared earlier.

With the rains inundating the field, the boat is now in inches-deep water. The CHS has submitted a detailed proposal for its protection. But the complete excavation of the time traveller and its preservation could be elaborate and cost the cash-strapped Government crores of rupees.

The boat could answer a few questions about trade and transport in ancient Kerala. Kadakkarappally is 1.5 km from the sea, but could have been a seafront town once. Some experts believe the boat reflects Portuguese technology since iron nails have been used in its construction. "Such nails were used extensively in this region only after contacts with the West," says Dr Shaji of CHS. Medieval Indian texts say no iron nails were used for boat building in ancient India. CHS experts believe the boat was abandoned there or trapped in a storm.

It is Kadakkarappally's villagers who are trying to garner attention for their prize find. Father V.P. Joseph Vailyaveedan, a priest who heads Kerala Coastal Gazetteer, a study group, has been conducting seminars and workshops on the subject and appealing to the state Government to initiate action. "A detailed study would throw immense light on the land's cultural and maritime history and also on ancient ship-building techniques," he says.

Kadakkarappally Panchayat President A. Kunjachan says his repeated requests to the Government to take care of the site have been ignored. "It is the most important site in our panchayat, but we ourselves are too poor to do anything," laments Kunjachan. Keeping history afloat is clearly beyond them.

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